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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A better article on missionaries and immigration

This is from Deseret News, so it's more reliable than earlier links I've posted. I'm guessing, from the content of the article, that the church doesn't have a problem sending out missionaries that aren't legally here (keep in mind that most of them in this category were raised in the US, are in the US through no fault of their own, and have no other home).Of course, I don't have access to the handbooks, so I don't know what the official policy is. All I can find are hints like this one.

I'm going to get worked up over this; partly because it's fun but also because I'm perturbed and feel like ranting so that I can stop reading 10-K annual statements while I compose this note.

To put this in perspective, suppose the bill was titled "preventing illegals from serving missions and other purposes" and you're a Mormon congressman. Church leadership calls you up and says "hey we're concerned you're going to push to a vote a bill that would keep missionaries who want to serve from serving" and your response is "oh, I've been reassured that at some point the missionary stuff will get taken out so I'm going to support the 'keep missionaries home' bill even though in its current version it would seriously hamper church missionary efforts because that version won't make it to the floor"

Mormon politicians get to vote their conscience (Mitt Romney was pro-choice for a while after all) but if I were in congress and Church headquarters called me concerned about my support for a bill I would probably be inclined to seriously consider changing my mind.